Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Compliments of Channing Tatum

Due to the absence of iPhoto on my HP - damn you, Mac-only products! - I've been in the aborious process of organizing photos, downloading photos from Facebook, and otherwise getting photographs in order after the shift from my 7-year old MacBook to our PC. Anyway, after I organized a crap ton of photos from about five years ago, I downloaded a bunch of photos from our recent trip to Greece.

I wish I could say the first thing I noticed was the beautiful scenery, but the first thing I noticed from our Grecian adventure was the way I looked. One negative thought leaked in and then entered the flood gates of waters rushing down the path of myriad things that I deemed would be "better" if they didn't look the way they did.

This is a stupid and useless process. It takes us nowhere except to self-loathing, which is is destructive and bad for our health. Logically, I can go through the reasons not to give into self-loathing particularly in regards to weight loss which isn't the same as health, isn't a measure of beauty, and hasn't been successfully accomplished in the long term by any more than a small fraction of people, But yet the desire remains to be part of that small fraction - to be the exception.

And for what? While I concede that my life would probably differ if I were thin - strangers would treat me differently, I wouldn't have to work as hard for people's approval that thin people are given instantly by virtue of the fact that they don't embody someone's stereotypes, certain things (like shopping for clothes) might be easier, but would the things that REALLY matter - the people who love me, the experiences I've had, the passions I have - change? No. They wouldn't.

Bodies change. Tides change. Moods change. Things change. And here's Channing Tatum on a never-changing loop to remind you one other thing that will never, ever, ever change: